Who is Journey Blue?
by Isobel Morgan
Summary: "I just wish you hadn't been a soldier," he said. But is that all she is? Follows on from the end of "Into the Dalek."


**Who is Journey Blue?**

She keeps hearing his words in her head.

"I just wish you hadn't been a soldier."

And that bothers her. More than the fact he won't take her with him: that he won't because she's a soldier. Well, so what if she is? She's a good soldier, an excellent pilot, and she'd been a great sister too, up until the day she couldn't save her brother, but she doesn't hold it against the Doctor that he hadn't saved Kai too. Not much, anyway.

Soldier isn't all she is, so why is it enough to leave her behind?

It's not like she really enjoys being a soldier; she'd become sick of war long before she even met the Doctor, they all had, but that isn't the point, is it? She fights on, because she has to, does her job, plays her part, but she can't stop hearing those words in her head.

Is this who she really is? What she is? 

The less of them there are on the Aristotle, the more jobs they have to take on, and she finds herself doing repairs. Small ones to begin with, then larger and she finds the answer. She's still a soldier, but she can fix things too; not a doctor, but it's a start. She gets her uncle to let her go off and re-train, and she gets better at fixing things, until that's all she does. She still flies occasionally – her Wasp is now called the GA Carlisle – but mostly she's the one they call on to fix things, anything. If they find another broken Dalek, they'll probably send her in to fix that too.

Years pass. The war goes on, but she doesn't fight anymore, she just fixes things. People too, when she has to, and she gets quite good at that too.

And then one day, she turns around and he's there again. 

She's imagined this so many times, now she doesn't know what to say.

"Doctor."

"Soldier."

"No. Not anymore. They call me Fixer now."

"Journey "Fixer" Blue?"

"Fixer Journey, usually. Even Uncle Morgan calls me that."

She looks around.

"Where's your friend? Where's Clara?"

For a moment, he says nothing. Then he just shakes his head.

"Did you still want to...?"

He nods his head at the strange blue box in the corner.

"Just a quick trip, mind. I'm sure you're busy. Daleks to kill and all that."

"Maybe. Haven't found any more I could fix. But then, my spaceship's not an impossible box that can go anywhere."

"It's a time machine as well."

He shoves his hands in his pockets, reveals the flash of scarlet on the inside of his jacket.

His eyes meet hers and there's such seriousness there that for a moment, she wonders if she wants to go with him after all. Then she realises what he said.

"You said that before, yeah. When you first picked me up. Time capsule, or something. I'd forgotten."

"No you didn't."

"No, I didn't. And you want me to come with you, yeah? Travelling in time?"

"If you like."

"And you don't care about me being a soldier?"

Again, he hesitates for just a moment. He smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. 

"I said you were probably nice underneath, didn't I?"

"You did. Are you?"

She remembers him saving her, but also those he didn't save. Ross. Gretchen. And of course, Kai.

His eyes bore into hers. Those eyes. What must they have seen?

"I try."

She thinks about that. She watched him try to heal a Dalek, after all. No matter what, she'd trusted him. They all had.

"Good enough."

She puts down the tools she's using, and follows him into the impossible box. that's smaller on the outside.

He's right. It is more exciting that way around.

* * *

Disclaimer: no, none of this is mine, etc,etc.

This isn't me trying to guess what happens next, more a "what if?"

I've always shied away from writing the Doctor himself (apart from some terrible stories I wrote as a pre-teen, that have since been shredded!), but I've been a fan of Peter Capaldi's for years, (see my Angel Islington Neverwhere story 'Repentence') and I'm intrigued to see how he does. I thought Zawe Ashton was really good in 'Fresh Meat' - there was a Twitter campaign to get her cast as the next Doctor, before Capaldi was announced. Maybe in a few years? :)


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